Human hearts kept 'asleep' in a box can survive outside the body

A new way of keeping hearts alive but “asleep” in a box outside the body for a day or more could bring an end to people dying on the heart transplant waiting list.

The system was tested on the first patient in August, albeit with the heart kept in this state for just 3 hours, New Scientist can reveal. It will be tested on another five people for this same time and, if all goes well, the time will be gradually raised to 24 hours. Stig Steen at Lund University …